Nadal, Gaudio Grind Dirt Wins at ATP StuttgartPosted on July 21, 2005 The top four seeds moved into the fourth round of play Wednesday at the ATP claycourt stop in Stuttgart in French Open champ (1) Rafael Nadal (d. (Q) Armando), Russian clay specialist (2) Nikolay Davydenko (d. Ramirez Hidalgo), former French champ (3) Gaston Gaudio (d. (WC) A.Beck), and Spaniard (4) Tommy Robredo (d. Starace from a set down).
"I'm happy about my first match, I think I played at a good level today," said Nadal after recording his 30th consecutive win on clay. "People think I'm the favorite because I won the last tournaments. But I know that every match is difficult." Other seeds advancing were (6) Jiri Novak (d. Sabau 6-0 in the third), (11) Tomas Berdych (d. Kohlschreiber in three), and (16) Paul-Henri Mathieu (d. A.Costa). Seven players orchestrated seeded upsets Wednesday in Argentine Juan Monaco (d. (5) Ferrer), Germans Rainer Schuettler (d. (7) Youzhny) and (WC) Alexander Waske (d. (13) Acasuso), Fin Jarkko Nieminen (d. (10) Melzer in three), Czech Tomas Zib (d. (12) Pavel from a set down), Spaniard Fernando Verdasco (d. (14) Andreev 7-6 in the third), and Italy's Andreas Seppi (d. (15) A.Martin). Scheduled for Thursday in Stuttgart are Nieminen vs. (6) Novak, (4) Robredo vs. Seppi, (WC) Waske vs. (2) Davydenko, Schuettler vs. (11) Berdych, (1) Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal vs. Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco in an all-Spanish, Simon vs. Zabaleta, (16) Mathieu vs. (3) Gaudio, and Zib vs. Monaco. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||